Carl Palmer "Black Sabbath wanted me to replace Bill Ward"

http://www.uncut.co.uk/elps-carl-palmer-black-sabbath-wanted-me-to-replace-bill-ward-news




Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Carl Palmer<.strong> has revealed that he turned the chance to become Black Sabbath's drummer when they reformed in 2011.

Palmer, who is also a member of Asia, said he was approached by guitarist Tony Iommi to join the band when they got back together two years ago after original drummer Bill Ward refused to come on board.

He told WENN: "Tony and I did talk when they were looking for drummers to make the album and he put me forward. I couldn't do it because I was off with Asia, we were touring and then something else came up. I couldn't have done it but I would have loved to. It just wasn't on the cards."

Palmer added: "I was classically trained but basically I'm a rock drummer and I've never been in a true out-and-out guitar band like Black Sabbath, where it's just big riffs - very simple but very dynamic. It would be extremely invigorating. The older I get the more I appreciate that music. I was late to come to heavy metal. Asia had a bit of that but we were a little bit more corporate rock and melodic."

 

Don't think I have ever heard anyone describe music they themselves played on as "corporate rock."

I mean, isn't that a synonym for cr@p by committee?

 

That expression didn't escape my attention either.

Brings back fond memories of this thread:
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/so-uh-whats-wrong-with-corporate-rock-exactly.299340/

 

He can handle the truth. Good chap.

 

Would Palmer have come cheaper than Ward? Because that was the issue, Sharon didn't want to pay Bill an even share.

 

Asia never played heavy metal despite whatever qualifiers Carl Palmer wants to use as adjectives to what they did. Hard rock (at best and not very good at that). Example: the Astra record with former Krokus guitarist, Mandy Meyer.

 

I think I would have enjoyed that switch much more than what they ended up with.

 

It might have been cool to have CP's playing on the album and the tour. The dude is fit as a fiddle!

 

Indeed. I just gained a bit of respect for him.

 

Interesting. He can rip the drums. No doubt.

I agree with him. The older I get all I want is heavy music.

Black Sabbath - Born Again, anyone?

 

Volume IV.

 

Pretty heavy!

 

carl is going crazy here, he was a member of my #1 favorite heavy metal band that pioneered the whole genre, and started it all....ATOMIC ROOSTER

 

Uh, I like AR as much as the next guy, but they weren't heavy metal even by the broadest definition. Hard rock is what they were. Pioneered the whole genre? I think you're thinking of Black Sabbath. In fact, you must be.

 

dawg, please.....

 

Good album, but no.

 

No doubt! I saw him with Asia a few years ago and the dude seemed unbelievably fit and youngish looking. He is an excellent drummer still.

 

Didn't Cozy Powell play with them at one point?

If so, seems like Carl Palmer would have easily fit in.

 

And Cozy played with Emerson and Lake also

 

I'd say that, briefly, AR touched on 70s heavy metal. "Death Walks Behind You" had a dark Gothic Sabbath like feel to it (dark lyrics, "scary" album artwork, guitar riffed) even though it was closer to proggy-hard rock in sound. I think the lines were kind of blurred in the early 70s regarding hard rock/metal as none of it was really all that heavy compared to what would follow in the 80s and beyond. I know that Martin Popoff considers "Death Walks Behind You" his favorite heavy metal obscurity of the 70s. Personally, I always felt AR were a little overrated. They had some great musicians but not enough good songs, IMO, not even on the supposed classic first couple of records.

As far as CP in Sabbath, it sounds intriguing on paper but I wonder how it would work in reality. CP is a great drummer, maybe *too* good for Sabbath in some respects.

 

Carl Palmer in Sabbath. He would have way overplayed. Fail.
They did just fine.

 

What I bolded in your statement was my point exactly in what I said to Chewy. His assertions that they were the first heavy metal band and "pioneered the genre" was ludicrous. To add to that, he states Palmer played heavy metal with Atomic Rooster yet the album he provides as a resource doesn't even have Palmer on it. The drummer on that album is Paul Hammond. Only the original album, Atomic Rooster, features Palmer and it's of a decidedly less darker tone than Death Walks Behind You (which, to my ears, leans more towards progressive hard rock than even something like proto-metal).

 

Tommy Clufetos did just fine on tour when I saw them. Smarter people here will judge if Brad Wilk was the right man in the studio. I didn't have a problem with that either.

 

Palmer is not completely accurate there. Both Black Sabbath and ASIA are corporate (ie: big business). Did you see Sabbath on CSI? Did you see the way they handled Bill Ward?

 

the problem with stuff like this is that if it's judged against bands like Deep Purple, and many people label Deep Purple a metal band, then sure, Atomic Rooster is a metal band. there are certainly metal elements within that track, and given that these guys were doing it in 1970, I'd lump it in with the likes of King Crimson, Uriah Heep, Deep Purple and so forth as bands that were instrumental in the development of heavy metal.